Chapter 99 – The Willing Fish Bites

Chapter 99 – The Willing Fish Bites

Without realizing it, Yu Sheng voiced Qin Huan’s argument. After speaking, she listened quietly to the sound of water for a while. Still not having gained any clearer understanding, she said to Zhan Changfeng, “Your method doesn’t work. What do you think filial piety is? What is self-cultivation?”

Discussing filial piety with Zhan Changfeng was undoubtedly a trap. The imperial family didn’t care about such things. If forced to define it, it was showing a certain degree of respect to one’s elders, provided it didn’t involve one’s own interests.

However, as a humanistic tool of governance, filial piety played an extremely important role. But as a cultivator, these matters were not worth discussing.

Zhan Changfeng gazed at the rushing water and said, “That’s hard to generalize. Have you heard of Shenzhou? There, filial piety advocates supporting and respecting parents, obeying and advising them, continuing the family line, mourning and making offerings after their death, establishing oneself and achieving merit to bring glory to one’s parents. In short, it’s about ensuring matters before and after a parent’s death, continuing their will, living as they would have you live, obeying them unconditionally, and actively bearing children to ensure someone makes offerings after they die.”

“Teacher’s philosophy shares some similarities with this, but I don’t think it’s reasonable.” Yu Sheng shook her head. “I approve of repaying one’s parents and respecting them. That’s what distinguishes humans from beasts. But I don’t believe children should live under their parents’ control. People should have their own will, not be someone’s puppet.”

Yu Sheng pondered her words. “The filial piety I believe in should reflect a person’s character and charm, not imprison their thoughts and will.”

Zhan Changfeng said, “You understand it quite well, so what are you struggling with?”

“…What if the parents aren’t worthy of filial piety?”

“Whether you repay grievance with justice or with virtue is your own choice, isn’t it?” Zhan Changfeng didn’t quite understand this struggle. “Can you give an example?”

Yu Sheng was taken aback for a moment. “For instance, abandoning or killing one’s children.”

Zhan Changfeng thought of those children bought and sold by their own parents, of the reality of exchanging children to eat. “If parents are not parents, what’s the point of filial piety? In my view, they’ve committed the crimes of child abandonment and murder. At the very least, that’s a life sentence.”

In the original concept of Shenzhou, parents, having given their children life, held power over their life and death. Children were their parents’ property, to be sold as they wished, and no one cared if they were killed.

This was the most malicious devaluation of life.

Therefore, in the new legal code Zhan Changfeng had compiled, the independence of the individual was explicitly stated. Any act that maliciously endangered another’s life or health would be severely punished.

Correcting the two concepts that “women are men’s property” and “children are their parents’ property” was almost the foundational principle underlying all her governmental decrees.

Yu Sheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, thinking she was joking. “Cangyun Ravine has no such laws.”

“That’s the flaw in Cangyun Ravine’s rules, and the reason it can’t balance law and cultivators.”

Cangyun Ravine was a large collective, containing smaller collectives like noble families and sects. They had their own rules, and almost all their family regulations and sect disciplines contained clauses for punishing, beating, or killing disciples or clan members. This meant the Bureau of Patrol couldn’t intervene when they killed their own members, and naturally had no grounds to interfere when parents sold or abused their children.

Yu Sheng realized she was mistaken; Zhan Changfeng was seriously discussing this issue. Yu Sheng recalled Teacher Lin once saying Zhan Changfeng had proposed “using law to govern the state, using statutes to govern the world.” Thinking about it seriously now, it did fit this person’s style.

“You seem to like dividing right from wrong by a certain standard.”

“Without rules, there is no order. Law is above all.” Zhan Changfeng said. “Living beings can confuse right and wrong, their judgment influenced by various factors, but rules cannot. Even if you misinterpret them, they remain there.”

Yu Sheng didn’t quite agree. “Rules are also made by people. How do you know the rules are necessarily right?”

“…”

Her question wasn’t really a challenge; Zhan Changfeng could answer it, but the words on the tip of her tongue were swallowed back. She fell silent.

Re-establishing the martial path, formulating new laws and policies—she had been proceeding according to her own plan because she believed she was right.

But why did she believe she was right?

Zhan Changfeng returned to the beginning, thinking of her original intention—to change the ideology of Shenzhou’s people.

Why change it?

Because she believed the people of Shenzhou had tarnished the original information of life. Everything she did was to restore life to its original form.

Why was she right?

Because her rules came from the source, born to correct the life consciousness sliding into the mire.

“This is the ‘Dao’ I have comprehended!” Zhan Changfeng achieved a moment of enlightenment. Rules—yes, that was it, rules.

She was acting to make everything conform more closely to the rules.

The Dao Embryo was growing into a seed. She answered Yu Sheng, word by word, “My execution may have errors, but my rules are not wrong, because they are in the heavens, in my heart, maintaining the operation of billions of worlds.”

“Even if distorted in a thousand, ten thousand ways, I know they have always been there, and I will surely bring them back to the mortal world.”

Zhan Changfeng felt immensely free and happy. But no matter how happy, she still had to face the reality of having no money. So she picked up the fishing rod, cast the line, and said nothing more.

Yu Sheng snapped out of her thoughts from that speech, surprised. “This fishing rod is yours?”

“Otherwise, what would I be doing here?”

“How can you catch fish in rushing water like this?”

“The willing fish bites.” Zhan Changfeng held the rod, appearing both lazy and aloof.

After the bell rang, the students gradually descended the mountain and returned home, the sounds of people slowly fading away.

In this serene quiet, Yu Sheng watched, wide-eyed, as a plump fish struggled mightily against the current, swimming upstream, and bit the hook with a snap.

“…” Yu Sheng felt something shatter inside.

Zhan Changfeng reeled in the fish, lost in thought. Seeing Yu Sheng’s fixed stare, she expressionlessly asserted her claim, “This is mine. You can’t take it.”

Who wanted to take it?

Yu Sheng was speechless, then burst out laughing.

Zhan Changfeng tied the fish with a straw rope and carried it in her hand. “Actually, I don’t think filial piety matters much. You just heard about Shenzhou’s filial piety; does it still apply in Cangyun Ravine?”

“For the sake of ancestral offerings, Shenzhou holds continuing the family line as sacred. But in reality, when a person dies, the light goes out. All karma is severed. Even if they become a ghost, it has nothing to do with you.”

“Moreover, most people in Cangyun Ravine are cultivating. Even if they aren’t, in the mortal world they’d be martial arts masters. Regardless of martial or cultivation methods, they’re all seeking their own Dao. In such circumstances, can one still obey one’s parents in everything?”

“Seeking the Dao is itself a process of distancing oneself from worldly disturbances to explore true knowledge. No one can walk the path for another. Besides, you have deep Dao affinity in the future. If you leave home to become a true cultivator, severing worldly ties is essential. At that time, blood and kinship bonds must be cut, even if unwillingly.”

“Looking further ahead, what troubles you today is truly not worth mentioning, unless you remain an ordinary believer your whole life, unable to escape the world’s gaze.”

Yu Sheng felt as if she’d been stabbed. “Sigh, you either don’t speak at all, or when you do, it’s a whole set of arguments that’s hard to refute.”

“I’m not just saying it for you. I’m also organizing my own thoughts.” Zhan Changfeng bid farewell, fish in hand.

Yu Sheng watched her leave, feeling much more open-minded. Thinking back, this was also a capable person—extending from filial piety to governing the world, then returning to cultivation. After being led around in circles by her, her own little struggles really weren’t worth mentioning.

There were still many sights above. She would walk and see as she went.

(End of Chapter)